Bernie Sanders’ stunning victory in Michigan on Tuesday got me thinking about what I saw at the caucuses last weekend, here in Cornish and throughout Maine. While it sounds like the system could be on its way out because of frustrations with disorganization and inefficiencies, I enjoyed the caucus this year. It gave me the opportunity to engage with voters in a way that’s wholly distinct from the technical and often sanctimonious exchanges that take place online.
Living in Cornish, a town of 1,400, though, I was spoiled with a caucus unblemished by overwhelming crowds and disorganization. While living in this small town, I will sentimentally embrace the process. But if, on the whole, it results in turning away new and enthusiastic participants in the process — especially energized young people — I look forward to a reinstatement of the primary system.
At last weekend’s caucus, Cornish turned out for Sanders two to one. Literally. We have just three delegates to send to the state convention, and we split up with just about two-thirds supporting Sanders. Backing Clinton was a group of passionate supporters over the age of 50, about 80 percent of whom were women. Sanders’ supporters ranged from their mid-20s to a married couple near 80. I try to attend town meeting every year. Of particular note was the fact that nearly everyone on Clinton’s side was someone who already is regularly engaged in the town’s democratic infrastructure; the majority of those on Sanders’ side were those who appeared new to this form of real time engagement.
A young woman, a farmer in her 20s, was there with her mother and sister. She told me her dad was considering changing his affiliation from Republican to Democrat so he could vote for Sanders but, according to caucus rules, he was too late to do so. Either way, he’d more likely vote for Sanders over any of the GOP frontrunners. I think of situations such as these every time someone suggests Sanders would prove unelectable come the general election.
It reminds of when I worked for the Vermont Democratic Coordinated Campaign in 2006, when Sanders was running for his first term in Senate. People equate Vermont with Phish and Ben and Jerry’s — liberal things — when, really, the majority of the state is similar in flavor to the right-leaning libertarian bent of much of Maine. Under similar split-ticket circumstances, Gov. Paul LePage could have risen just as easily in Vermont. Driving through the state, I’d find myself perplexed time and again when I’d see lawns carrying signs representing every Republican candidate and then Sanders, or the same motif with bumper stickers. Talking with these folks at fairs and rallies and parades, they’d say they supported him because of an honesty they got from him because they didn’t get from even their own ticket of candidates. No matter how many times smears were thrown around regarding his political affiliation and identification as a democratic socialist, he took 65 percent of the vote.
It is this, Sanders’ ability to appeal across party lines and his history of doing so, that makes me believe his campaign is not over. It is the Sanders campaign’s ability to energize folks otherwise new to the process that leads me to see the Michigan win as especially significant.
One may be tempted to look at Sanders’ sweep here in Maine and his subsequent Michigan win and return to that old aphorism: “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” But Clinton still took Mississippi, which some may attribute to a divide of support in white versus black communities, but Colin Woodard, writer of “American Nations,” also would point out that the political and social culture of Mississippi, a state he’d classify as “Deep South,” and Michigan, which he’d classify as “Yankeedom,” are themselves very different — the latter sharing a lot in common with Maine.
We should be cautious to make too much of Sanders’ Michigan victory beyond saying with relative confidence that the race isn’t not over.
Sanders is a flawed candidate, as is Clinton. Some of his positions on race in particular are problematic, as with Clinton. He is very much a white guy with a long history of being embedded in a white state, and it shows. He’s got a lot of work to do to fill those gaps, as well as to speak comprehensively about foreign policy and other issues outside the realm of economic inequality. It isn’t to say he can’t be trusted to have his heart and brain in good places to assign the right people to advise on these issues. No one will be perfect.
But it appears clear Sanders appeals to people who otherwise are put off by politics, “the way things are supposed to be,” dynasties and other baggage carried by the darlings of the Democratic National Committee. While the so-called “delegate math” may not look great for Sanders, as our caucuses here began to indicate last Saturday, the fight’s not over.
Not yet, at least.
Alex Steed has written about and engaged in politics since he was a teenager. He’s an owner-partner of a Portland-based content production company and lives with his family, dogs and garden in Cornish.
